It was back in ’81 that a man named Washington
Was fighting hard for freedom in this land,
But his men were poor and ragged,
And against the British gun,
Well, he didn’t even dare to make a stand.

Old Ferguson was marching toward the Carolina hills,
Making brags he’d hang a man to every tree,
But the news that he was coming
Raced across the mountain tops,
And they heard about it over in Tennessee.

At the shoal of old Watauga, where the sycamores grow tall,
They rallied around ol’ Nolichucky Jack,
And they said, “We’ll drive the Redcoats
Back across the briny deep.
Yes, we’ll lick ’em, or we’re never coming back!”

There was Chucky Jack and Campbell, Colonel Shelby in their band,
Mountaineers who loved their liberty,
And a lovesick boy named Gillam
With a brand new rifle gun,
Named for his girl in Tennessee.

Sweet Lips was a rifle named for a girl in Tennessee.
When Sweet Lips spoke,
The chains that bound us broke.
She struck a mighty blow for liberty.

When they rode across the mountains onto Carolina soil,
The Tarheels with their muskets gathered ’round
To go and head off Ferguson
Before he got to them
To hang ’em all and burn their houses down.

When Ferguson heard the mountain men were camping on his trail,
He first began to laugh and then to scoff,
Said, “We’ll go up on King’s Mountain,
And then let the rebels come,
For the powers of Hell will never drive me off.”

But Campbell and Ben Cleveland, Colonel Shelby, and their men,
And John Sevier ~ ol’ Nolichucky Jack ~
Well, they loaded up their rifles,
And they climbed the mountainside,
Said, “We’ll lick ’em, or we’re never coming back!”

Oh, he blew his silver whistle, and he shouted and he cursed,
“Use your bayonets to drive the rebels back!”
But the Redcoats never made it,
For before they reached the line,
The mountain rifles jumped them in their tracks.

Sweet Lips was a rifle named for a girl in Tennessee.
When Sweet Lips spoke,
The chains that bound us broke.
She struck a mighty blow for liberty.

Ol’ Ferguson was dashing up and down the battlefield,
And it seemed that he must lead a life of charm,
For the mountaineers were aiming
At his gaudy checkered coat,
But their bullets passed him by and did no harm.

Then up stepped young John Gillam with his brand new rifle gun,
Named for his girl back home. He said,
“Well, I wonder what Sweet Lips can do?”
And when he took his aim,
Sweet Lips spoke, and Ferguson fell dead.

Cornwallis heard that Ferguson and all his men were lost,
And he said, “This place is just too hot for me.”
So he soon went off to Yorktown,
Where he laid his weapons down,
And ever since this country has been free.

Sweet Lips was a rifle named for a girl in Tennessee.
When Sweet Lips spoke,
The chains that bound us broke.
She’s gone and did her part for liberty.

Balfour Beatty/DPR/Big-D, Salt Lake City, Utah, was awarded on Sept. 24 a $479,000,000 firm-fixed-price construction contract for the Utah Data Center. The Utah Data Center is an Office of the Director of National Intelligence military construction project. The project will consist of building a data center and all associated ancillary requirements. Work is to be performed in Camp Williams, Utah, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 15, 2014. Bids were solicited on the World Wide Web with no bids received. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, Baltimore, Md., is the contracting activity (W912DR•10•C•0094)

Not the second-highest mountain on earth, but the former Soviet airbase 535.8425 nautical miles west of that mountain. Spent 10 days in that garden spot coming and going and coming back.

Is it paranoid to wonder if Pooti-poot and Karimov didn’t sucker us deeper into Afghanistan after 9-11 by making available facilities for the logistical support of a land war in Asia in which we might not otherwise have embroiled ourselves?

OEF would have been done differently had we never been allowed on K2. Not necessarily better, but our footprint next door in Aghanistan would have been lighter out of necessity. One of the reasons the headcount down in Afghanistan grew to the size it did was because it could, due to the big Class I yard at K2 and connectivity to the European rail system.

K2 was my introduction to CENTCOM AOR. Mildly interesting the first time. Sucked the other three times. Would have sucked worse to be forced to sit at the ADACG (Arrival/Depature Airfield Control Group, AKA PAX Terminal) instead of having free run of the place, such as it was. Some extraordinarily beautiful Uzbek women worked at K2 back then. They were pretty the first time I saw them in September, 2004. By the time I saw them again in March, 2005 they were stunning.